routine Win 7 updates check stalls

CosmicJest · 20 Oct 2015

Man, I jinxed it! The Windows 10 update download stalled about 25% through.

There are three things different from before removing Norton and deactivating the Avast firewall:
1) the process actually showed that it had begun
2) the Windows Update process was active with a PID of 1164. (I couldn't find anything meaningful on that PID but maybe it's a clue)
3) The update stalled, but didn't freeze, so I was able to cancel it. The service is still running, but the box is closed.

Having had numerous Norton products over the years, I did run the Norton Removal Tool, even though Norton Online Backup isn't one of the listed products it claims to remove. I should have said I'd run it, if only for the benefit of people who don't know about it - my bad. I didn't know if there might have been other Norton products on the computer in the past, and it wouldn't hurt anything. It didn't touch Norton Online Backup though. I removed that using Revo Uninstaller, which I've been using for well over 10 years, and wouldn't be without.

But back to the matter at hand...what do we try next?

wben353 · 20 Oct 2015

Take a look at this from TheWindowsClub, click here.

NoelDP · 20 Oct 2015

PID's are effectively random in most cases - they are simply Process IDentification tags, and will change every time a process is started. The only one that I know of that doesn't change at all is the SYSTEM process, which is always #4

I wouldn't worry too much about the download stopping - it was probably due to something at MS's end rather than yours. Wait a while and see if it starts up again.

wben353 · 20 Oct 2015

Thanks for chiming in NoelDP. Hope you're feeling much better. :)

CosmicJest · 20 Oct 2015

wben353 said:

Take a look at this from TheWindowsClub, click here.

Running the cmd prompt as admin the process would not stop.

CosmicJest · 20 Oct 2015

When I got home from work and opened the computer, I was greeted with a message that Windows Updates were turned off. Hmmm. So I clicked to turn them on, then I went to Control Panel and clicked on Windows Updates, which froze the CP again.

I opened Task Manager, and the Avast firewall service is running, even though it's turned off! What the??? I was denied access to stop the service.

NoelDP · 21 Oct 2015

Obvious solution - uninstall Avast, and run their cleanup tool, then install MSE and make sure the Windows Firewall is switched on.

Download the Avast removal utility from here Avast Uninstall Utility | Download aswClear for Avast Removal
Follow the instructions for running it, and when complete, reboot the machine.

CosmicJest · 21 Oct 2015

I hesitated to uninstall a paid product without consulting my friend, but did so in the interest of getting this problem resolved. Before installing MSE, however, I decided to check Windows Update. It still freezes the Control Panel when I click the link.

NoelDP · 21 Oct 2015

OK - please post the C:\Windows\windowsupdate.log file, and a couple of the event logs...
Open Event Viewer
click on the Windows logs entry in the left pane to expand it.
Now click on the Application entry - wait while it loads.
Click on 'File' in the menu bar and select Save...
Save the file as Appevt.evtx
Repeat for the System log
then zip both, and upload them.

CosmicJest · 21 Oct 2015

For the Application log, I don't have an option to save under File, so I took an Action and Saved All Events As Appevt.evtx, which will hopefully be what you're looking for. I saved the System log in a similar manner. The Windows Update log is in there, too. Thank you for taking the time to look at them.